- 50% less excess inventory due to better data and forecasting
- Increased sold cost recovery by over 46% in just one year
- $30,000+ saved each sales cycle
Challenge
Managing excess and at-risk inventory successfully often comes down to one thing: agility. For CPG companies, finding the right tools, processes, and insights is key for managing performance, driving efficiency, and supporting decision making.
Solution
Spoiler Alert was purpose-built for these challenges. Spoiler Alert’s latest innovations are particularly effective and useful for the day-to-day decisions CPGs face. These proprietary tools – part of the Spoiler Alert iQ suite of features – use data and intelligence to automate and optimize the liquidation process for CPG leaders.
Impact
Since joining Spoiler Alert, the structured, intelligent approach has allowed one supplier to manage excess inventory more proactively than many of their peers.
“Spoiler Alert has been a game-changer for how we manage excess inventory. It’s intuitive, it scales, and it creates alignment across teams that used to work in silos,” says one liquidation leader. “Managing excess inventory will never be glamorous, but with the right tools and partners like Spoiler Alert, it becomes a strategic advantage instead of a distraction.”
A Purpose-Built Tool for CPGs
Food and CPGs impact everyone, and the scale of the industry means small improvements can often have a big impact. When it comes to excess inventory, solving problems happens most often around speed and visibility.
Without the right tools, suppliers risk losing time, margin, or both. Brand equity must also be front-of-mind, with responsible product placement that doesn't dilute the brand.
Before Spoiler Alert, one CPG flavor supplier relied heavily on spreadsheets, emails, and manual processes. While it worked, it wasn’t scalable, transparent, or strategic. It often led to limited visibility, inconsistent pricing decisions, and a lot of time spent on repetitive administrative work.
But with Spoiler Alert, what used to be a manual, opaque process is now structured, transparent and data-driven. It helps CPG suppliers move faster, make smarter pricing decisions, and collaborate better across functions internally.
A senior sales operations manager at this leading CPG flavor company said, “It was clear right away that Spoiler Alert was purpose-built for the challenges we faced. The interface was intuitive, and it offered capabilities we couldn’t replicate in spreadsheets.”
More than just improving how they manage excess inventory, Spoiler Alert has helped CPGs have less excess inventory to manage. One CPG estimates that, thanks to better data that’s improved forecasting capabilities, they have 50% less excess inventory than before working with Spoiler Alert.
Pricing Intelligence For Better Deals – Automatically
Spoiler Alert’s latest innovations are particularly effective and useful for the day-to-day decisions CPGs face. These proprietary tools – part of the Spoiler Alert iQ suite of features – use data and intelligence to automate and optimize the liquidation process for CPG leaders.
Pricing Intelligence, in particular, gives CPGs everything they need to make the excess inventory management process seamless from listing to awarding, and beyond. Suggested negotiations, reserve price reporting, and visibility into buyer behavior all allow CPGs to make decisions that balance speed with margin protection.
Pricing intelligence helps CPGs make better deals – automatically. With reserve price settings and pre-determined benchmarks in place, the guesswork is easily taken out of negotiations. Pricing Intelligence also helps suppliers to determine if they should accept an offer below their reserve price, giving flexibility to address unique situations without losing control of the overall strategy.
In just one year with Spoiler Alert, one CPG increased their sold cost recovery by over 46% and it remains over 35% higher than pre-Spoiler Alert still today.
With the help of the Spoiler Alert team, the team at the CPG have also customized reporting right at their fingertips with each closeout cycle. While they recognize it can mean a hit to their cost recovery, the increase in sell-through rates is, in many cases, worth it.
The CPG estimates that their ability to score items and decide quickly what prices they are willing to accept saves them upwards of $30,000 in inventory each sales cycle that may otherwise go unsold.
Move Smarter and Faster
Agility isn’t just the ability to list products quickly. It’s also about how quickly CPGs can react to changes in the market, and internally align to revise sales principles. With Spoiler Alert’s Pricing Intelligence tools, teams have the credibility they need to lead and increase alignment within the organization.
Spoiler Alert helps teams move beyond “did the product move” and into how it moved – did it increase margins, was it timely, and did it align with strategy? By leveraging Spoiler Alert’s data, suppliers can make changes in order to continue to meet KPIs.
Agility applies to more than just CPGs – it also applies to Spoiler Alert itself. Our Customer Success team regularly seeks feedback from clients, and implements it quickly. Our platform is not a stagnant tool, but is constantly improving, creating more value for our partners.
Excess as a Strategic Advantage
Since joining Spoiler Alert, the structured, intelligent approach has allowed one supplier to manage excess inventory more proactively than many of their peers.
“Spoiler Alert has been a game-changer for how we manage excess inventory. It’s intuitive, it scales, and it creates alignment across teams that used to work in silos,” says one liquidation leader. “Managing excess inventory will never be glamorous, but with the right tools and partners like Spoiler Alert, it becomes a strategic advantage instead of a distraction.”
If you’d like to see how Spoiler Alert iQ’s suite of intelligent tools can help you outsmart your peers managing excess inventory, we’d love to show you more. Find out more about Spoiler Alert iQ, and get a demo today!
